Archive for September, 2011

Bypassing the obligatory introduction yet again, my feelings on “The Falcon and the D’ohman” were generally predictable, as I had thought I would not enjoy this episode whatsoever and lo and behold, I was right. Let’s roll the tape.

The Comic Book Guy cold open was an “okay” use of his character; the Poochie doll and the Bart lamp with Blinky inside were, as aforementioned, “okay”; on the subject of lackluster jokes, the opening ‘number’ featuring Homer was unneeded but I did chuckle at the “60s Day” qu0te-unquote joke. As predicted, Kiefer Sutherland’s performance was not needed and the trying-to-make-him-appear-edgy character development didn’t work whatsoever. The “Moe’s Tavern” scene featuring Wayne and Homer is filled with unfunny lines and, as usual, bland storyline. The entire “training” scene, as described by Wayne, lasted entirely too long and, reminiscent of “Stop or My Dog Will Shoot!” referenced several pop-culture movies that may or may not be dated in the years to come.

The “Next Media Animation” reference wasn’t terrible, but then again it wasn’t funny either; it reminded me too much of Family Guy. The Lauren Bacall reference was a nice touch to a generally unfunny and soon-to-be-dated season premiere. The quote-unquote clever hiding of the results of the Nedna poll were nicely hidden but overall the I suspect the relationship will fail and its ending will be reminiscent of the end of “Homer Loves Flanders”, except unfunny and post-reanimation.

As for the B-plot, featuring Marge’s ‘dream’ to become a Top Chef, was, as suspected, a failure. Despite a promotional image featuring the bit and its seeming to have a high involvement in the episode, it ended after only a minute or two. Back to the A-plot, the Ukranian YouTube reference wasn’t funny, then again what was in this episode?, and unneeded; those two adjectives describe the entire episode, really. So, Nedna stay together, the B-plot failed (horribly), and the ending joke lasted too long. We’re off to a great start in season 23; I rate this episode a C+|2.5/5.

In 1990, First Lady of the United States Barbara Bush stated that “the dumbest thing [she] had ever seen” in a People magazine interview was “The Simpsons.” A short time afterward, ol’ Barb herself received a letter from matriarch Marge Simpson, who expressed her distress at the First Lady’s harsh criticism of her family. Shot out of the blue, the First Lady realized her “mistake” and sent a reply to Marge’s letter apologizing for her words. Here’s the full story from Letters of Note; the story of the First Lady receiving a letter from the blue-haired, green-dressed mother of three surfaced online before and was recalled in a “The Simpsons” boxset, but it’s always fun thing to read.

On yet another watered-down, reanimated addition of “Animation Domination”, The Simpsons premieres their 23rd season. For any reason you haven’t read the synopsis of tonight’s episode, here it comes; yoinked from Wikipedia:

The Springfield Nuclear Power Plant hires a new security guard named Wayne and Homer soon become friends with him. Meanwhile, Marge dreams of appearing on the reality series Top Chef.

Not much to the imagination; there really isn’t room to interpret that this episode will be good considering the guest stars. Kiefer Sutherland and Tom Colicchio are two irrelevant guest stars; us writers expect the entirety of the A-plot with Sutherland to be swimming with “24” references. As aforementioned, not much to the imagination other than I believe this episode will fall into the normal ‘bland’ category. To quote Smooth Jimmy Apollo: when you’re right 52% of the time, you’re right 48% of the time.

As I was rewatching “The Simpsons”, I came across the eighth episode of the third season, “Lisa’s Pony”, in which Lisa spirit is cheered when given a long-awaited pony by her father in response for his forgetfulness to get her a saxophone reed in time for a school talent show; nearing the third act, Homer, in desperate need of money due to the expenses of the horse, takes a job at the Kwik-E-Mart. Shortly after he takes the job, there is a scene between Lisa and her horse, Princess, where Lisa states that Princess hasn’t taken a taste of her salt lick therefore Lisa takes a lick to convince her and the horse begins to lick with her; when the scene ends there, it seems, to me at least, a fairly poignant moment in which you see how attached Lisa is to her horse and when you pair it with the concluding scene of her giving Princess up to the stable-owner to help her father’s well-being, it’s heartbreaking. The writers here at ES miss these moments in the era of reanimation; in this scene no more words than necessary are used, the lighting is done perfectly, and the story transitions.

Thanks for reading,

Judy

P.S. The framegrab featured above comes generously from Simpsons Park!